They snuck into Ith undetected as far as they could tell. The cloaking spell Schierke had concocted seemed to be working well enough, as they had yet to have a violent encounter with any of the demonic sort of beings. They also had yet to encounter any living humans. Living being the key word because the rotting corpses of ones were everywhere.

It was truly a wretched sight, the freshest bodies being weeks old at the very least. The smell was also beyond horrible. Guts was almost surprised by it all, but honestly at this point in his life these sort of things were almost expected. His name was 'Guts' after all.

Roderick had been sick shortly after landing. He had been embarrassed by it, but no one could really blame him. This was just another city to Guts and the others, but this was home to Roderick. The closest thing Guts had to home had been the Band of the Hawk, and he'd reacted in a similar way when this had happened to them. If anything Roderick took it slightly better, because he held out hope.

"There could be others still alive, this is a big port city." Roderick whispered to the group.

Another thing about the city was its near silence. Save the waves knocking broken ships against the docks, and Harpies flapping their ragged wings occasionally. The Harpies, as Schierke had identified, were gruesome creatures with the bodies of women, talons for feet, and large wings for arms. They had yet to truly see them up close, and thanks to the concealment spells the group was yet to be seen yet. Or at least that's what they assumed due to having yet to be attacked.

Nobody responded to Roderick's hope. They had seen this before, the eclipse, the Tower of Conviction and Albion, Flora's Tree, Vrittanis, Isma's island… Guts wondered how many other places would be so utterly destroyed. What else would Griffith destroy in the path of his dream? What would be left.

Guts resisted the urge to hold Casca closer. He didn't like to think of himself as clingy, but he always felt better if he had contact with her. He didn't need to worry about her wandering off anymore, but sometimes it felt if he couldn't physically touch her she would just disappear. A silly thought, but one that persisted. And now in this more than ominous city he just wanted to get her out alive.

Doubly unfortunately she was standing with Farnese and Schierke at the moment, so it wasn't like he could even really talk to her because of social convention; he was on the perimeter of their group, of his own volition of course. That and the constant threat of death.

Their goal in the city was to find any living people and make it to the rest of the continent, or at least that was Guts' goal. Everyone was still following his lead for some reason; all he wanted to do was find Rickert, well, Casca wanted that too. The only one who Guts wasn't sure about was Farnese and Serpico. Her betrothal to Roderick was still in action as far as they could tell, although a wedding still seemed a ways off as they weren't close yet, and also they were walking through the corpse strewn streets of the capital city. Roderick was reasonable, there wasn't any point in a political marriage if there was no kingdom, at least as far as Guts could tell, and things were looking hairy back at Farnese's parents' place, so that dynasty may have fallen as well. Guts didn't have a mind for this political stuff, never had, so it just frustrated him.

Sure they owed Roderick for the boat ride, but wasn't a magic elf world payment enough? That was a once in a lifetime experience.

"We should keep moving." Serpico murmured, the rest all nodding in agreement.

Continuing the trek they wandered for another hour before hearing a buzzing sound. Slowly they approached the sound, drawing weapons and wondering if they should turn around, that was before they heard the very human scream.

Roderick was off like a shot, sword drawn. The fool. Guts closely followed, not wanting the prince to get himself killed. What he saw as he turned the corner was odd to say the least.

The buzzing turned out to be from the hundreds of teeth gnashing together from the hundreds of heads of a many headed rat. Or perhaps it was a bunch of monstrous rats with their tails entangled. It reminded Guts of a story he had heard a long time ago, about a discovery of a nest of rats that were all tangled together at the tail. It was similar, but He imagined that that Rat-king probably didn't have hundreds swarming, or demonic glowing eyes. Didn't much matter as it was now barring down on a young man.

The man screamed again as the Rat-king was about to lunge, but Roderick intercepted, stabbing into the creature. It bled, but the sword was swallowed up by the mass and it bared down on the both of them. That's when Guts got there.

He swung the Dragon Slayer right threw the thing, cutting it in half. It writhed and squirmed, but after a moment the two halves got ahold of themselves and continued their attack.

No Harpies showed up at the noise, as the creature had started to emit harsh screeching cries. Perhaps they were too far from the sea, or the concealment spell, either way, Guts was grateful to deal with only one- er- two problems at a time.

The rest of the group arrived on the scene. Casca wielded Chrysaor for the first time, slicing one of the Rat-kings apart. Besides the demonstration back on Elfhelm, they had yet to see it in action as it was so lethal. It's ability to cuts through anything was something truly impressive, and Guts was happy that Casca possessed such a competent weapon. The same thing happened, it just multiplied, leaving there to be three, although smaller Rat-kings.

"What?" Casca exclaimed.

The man screamed yet again, causing them all to look at him. He was unarmed, either by purpose, or the rat monster had consumed his sword like Roderick's sword.

Guts wanted to slice and dice as he does, but if it's just going to create more there needed to be a different strategy.

Suddenly one was cut and didn't multiply. Burned slashes showed on the swarm, Isidro kept at it, not killing it, but actually hurting it.

"Umm..." Isidro said, holding his knife still, "I think fire hurts them."

"Schierke!" Casca said, "Cast a fire spell!"

"There's only water spirits nearby, and I'm not good at fire elemental spells!"

Farnese got a strange look in her eyes. The larger one of the the three Rat-kings lunged at Guts and on impulse he met the attack with his sword, creating another monster.

"Guts!" Casca yelled. God damn woman, he knew, but if it were between

Then the Rat-kings erupted into flames, all of them. They turned to see Farnese in deep concentration. She was physically shaking from the effort, her eyes reflecting the flames.

"Farnese-" Serpico said before being interrupted by Isma.

"Farnese that's awesome!"

Farnese didn't seem to hear any of it and Guts had a feeling that something was wrong.

The creatures were dead, turned to piles of ash, but Farnese was still in her trance.

"Farnese!" Schierke exclaimed, trying to approach Farnese. Serpico went to put a hand on her shoulder, but pulled it back as if burnt. No he was actually burnt. Farnese was starting to smoke.

"We need to anchor her!" Schierke said, "She's lost her herself in the spell!"

"How do we do that?" Isidro asked.

"I can try, but I'll need someone's help, someone close to her."

"I will help." Serpico said, still looking rather frantic. "What do I need to do?"

"Just touch her and me, I will channel the energy."

So Serpico took Schierke's hand and they both hesitantly grabbed Farnese's hands. Both entered a kind of trance as well, and Guts looked on with worry. He knew all too well what it was like to be caught inside one's mind. He walked up behind Casca, who glanced back at him, before leaning back against him slightly. She still had her sword out.

"I don't think this sort of thing has happened before." Casca murmured.

"No, not to her." Guts confirmed.

"I wish I could help."

"Yeah, me too."

They stayed in silence, vigilant to their friends and any other dangers that may arise. The man who they had saved was talking with Roderick. Roderick had been worried about Farnese, but whatever the man was saying must have been very important.

The minutes were tense as they waited for Farnese to return, until with a gasp, all three of them were back.

"Serpico you're-?" Was the first thing Schierke asked.

Serpico cut her off with a look. That was odd. Farnese had a bloody nose and nearly collapsed, if it weren't for Serpcio and Schierke to quickly catch her. The three of them seemed tired, but Farnese had it the worst, her eyes unfocused and her inability to stand.

Guts and Roderick stepped forward at the same time to offer support.

"Here, let me-

"I can-"

They said at the same time. Guts gestured for Roderick to go ahead.

Seeing how unsteady Serpico and Schierke were, Guts was going to offer to carry one of them,but Serpico beat him to speaking, "I'm fine, just need some food." Something wasn't right with him, but Guts wasn't going to pry.

Schierke looked like she was going to make the same excuse, but Ivalerra interrupted, "Schierke you are a delicate young flower, you're more drained than Serpico is!"

The person who really made the decision was Casca, who scooped up the young witch and placed her on his back. "I would just carry you myself, but I'm not stupidly strong like he is."

"Did you just call me stupid?" Guts asked.

Casca narrowed her eyes at him. "Oh, don't start that with me again."

He just smiled and used his good arm to hold Schieke up better. Luckily he had already slung the Dragon Slayer on his back, his cloak protecting the girl from the sharp edges.

"Thank you." She said quietly.

"Take a nap if you can." Guts said. "Rest is gonna be hard to come by."

She murmured a quiet, "Mmhmm."

Roderick introduced the man as Wemba, and what came next was everything they were searching for.

"There's not many of us left, and even less in good health and able age. We're hiding in the sewers under the city." Wemba explained, "Supplies are… never enough, and I was sent to try and find anything, but was attacked."

"How are you able to stay hidden?" Casca asked.

"The sewers, they were repurposed tunnels from a time long ago. They say elves carved them."

"Yup!" Puck said, "Elves are the best at like everything."

"Can you take us there?" Roderick asked, still carrying Farnese's limp form.

"I think I can show the prince of Ith our hiding hole." The man said.

"Good man." Roderick smiled, the first genuine one since entering the city.

So they followed the man further into the city.